Contents
Kip Thorne
Helping establish LIGO and the science of detecting gravitational waves.
Gravitation · Black Holes and Time Warps
- Born
- 1 June 1940
- Birthplace
- Logan, United States
More people
Kip Thorne
Kip Thorne is an American theoretical physicist whose work connects black holes, relativity and gravitational-wave astronomy. He shared the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics with Rainer Weiss and Barry Barish.
Early life
Academic family
Grew up in Utah with parents who worked in soil chemistry and economics.
Physics training
Studied at Caltech before completing a Princeton doctorate under John Wheeler in 1965.
Career
- 1967
Caltech faculty
Returned to California to teach and research gravitation.
- 1984
LIGO project
Helped establish the collaboration seeking gravitational waves.
- 2009 onward
Writing and film
Became emeritus at Caltech and devoted more time to books and collaborations beyond academia.
Selected work
Gravitation
Co-wrote an influential relativity textbook with Charles Misner and John Wheeler.
Black Holes and Time Warps
Explained the development of black-hole science for general readers.
Nobel Prize in Physics
Shared recognition for contributions to LIGO and gravitational-wave detection.
Beyond work
Interstellar
Worked with filmmakers to bring black-hole physics into the 2014 film.
Mentorship
Supervised generations of researchers in relativity and astrophysics.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Institutional source ↗Photo: Christopher Michel. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
